Geoffrey Ginn teaches modern British history and heritage studies in the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics at the University of Queensland, Australia. A member of the Board of the Queensland Museum, his research interests encompass cultural and urban history in British and colonial settings.

A spiritualist, mystic,
historian and lifelong collector of antiquities, J. S. M. Ward (1885–1949)
embodied the cultural turmoil of an age of collapsing empires, religious
fragmentation and world war. The Abbey Folk Park he started in 1934
at New Barnet, north of London, was an innovative history museum
where Ward’s interest in esoteric heritage, world cultures and the
occult attracted much attention. Unfairly disgraced in a sensational
court case in May 1945, he and his followers departed England for
Cyprus in self-imposed exile, along with his stunning collection
of artefacts.

After Ward’s death, both the community and his collection moved
to Queensland, Australia, where a new Abbey Museum now thrives just
north of Brisbane.

Archangels & Archaeology traces
John Ward’s extraordinary life and career for the first time, from
Edwardian Freemasonry and wartime spiritualism to his apocalyptic
visions as a second world war threatened to engulf Europe. His lively
museum fused a passion for Britain’s disappearing heritage with
a conviction that western civilization would shortly collapse. These
vivid concerns – so often treated in isolation – come
together in J. S. M. Ward’s curious and eccentric life story.

Hardback ISBN:

978-1-84519-492-5

Hardback Price:

£50.00 / $65.00

Release Date:

March 2012

Paperback ISBN:

978-1-84519-493-2

Paperback Price:

£22.50 / $34.95

Release Date:

October 2012

Page Extent / Format:

224 pp. / 229 x 152 mmm

Illustrated:

No

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements

1 Recollecting the Child2 History, Marriage and the Afterlife3 To the East 4 Gone West 5 Opening the Guarded Door 6 Explorations in the Craft 7 Kingdom of the Wise 8 An Ark for England 9 A Walk in the Folk Park 10 Anglican Outcasts and Orthodox Catholicism
11 Wartime Trials 12 Cyprus and Beyond Notes
Index

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